Some members of a Springfield church attended by a teenaged Gwen Ifill are remembering the late journalist as a kind and smart person who was really into books.

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Ifill spent a couple of years in Springfield in the 1970s, after her father was appointed pastor of Bethel AME Church.

Marie Spence has been a member of Bethel since 1960.

“She loved to read and mingle with other people and help the younger ones at the church school,” Spence recalled.

Karen Duncan-Jones and her husband were married by Ifill’s father 39 years ago this weekend. Duncan-Jones also remembers Ifill as studious, and very quiet. That made it all the more surprising, she said, to see Ifill become a famous broadcaster.

“When I first saw her on TV, I’m going, ‘That’s Gwen!'” she said. “You now, you see somebody you went to school with and you went to church with and there she is on TV.”

Gwen Ifill died Monday of cancer. she was 61.